UP govt to return YEIDA 200cr for failed land deal

Officials said YEIDA had sent a proposal for land acquisition in Gautam Budh Nagar and Bulandshahr in 2005. The land was spread across 5,236 hectares in GB Nagar and 1,183 hectares in Bulandshahr, respectivelyTNN | December 26, 2015, 08:23 IST

GREATER NOIDA: The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) will soon receive a refund of Rs 200 crore from the state government for a failed land acquisition deal 10 years ago.

In a meeting held last week, UP principal secretary (revenue) granted his approval for the return of the amount.

Officials said YEIDA had sent a proposal for land acquisition in Gautam Budh Nagar and Bulandshahr in 2005. The land was spread across 5,236 hectares in GB Nagar and 1,183 hectares in Bulandshahr, respectively. However, YEIDA had not got the land.In 2010, the land acquisition proposal lapsed and a penalty of 35% of the deposited amount was levied on YEIDA. This was Rs 188.65 crore, officials said. Along with interest, this amount is now Rs 200 crore.

YEIDA had been writing to the state government to view the matter in its favour. "We had been asking for the penalty to be waived off," said Arunvir Singh, CEO, YEIDA. "We have to distribute enhanced compensation of 64.7 % to farmers in the YEIDA area for a land acquired by the authority," he said.

"Earlier this week, we had presented our case to the principal secretary (revenue) and he had agreed to our proposal. We will now write to principal secretary (infrastructure and industrial development) Mahesh Kumar Gupta and seek his concurrence in the issue," Singh said.

YEIDA has to disburse Rs 6,000 crore as hiked compensation for the land acquisition in the area.